Michele C White

After 79 years of adventure and connection, Michele C. White, mother of two, grandmother of three boys, passed away on November 29, 2023. Michèle was the oldest of four children raised on Long Island by a lively, creative homemaker and realtor, Elizabeth Fallon, and an adman who loved boating and swing dancing, Edward Coleman. Along with her siblings, Toni, Edward, and Michael, Michèle cherished her tight-knit Bay Shore community, filled with neighborhood friends who enjoyed skating on the lakes in the winter and buzzing around the great South Bay by boat to Fire Island in the summer. Her classmates from both St. Patrick School and The Academy of St. Joseph proved to be lifelong.

As a young woman, Michèle put down roots in Baltimore. She forged deep friendships with her cohorts at The College of Notre Dame, became a 4th grade teacher, got married and had what she called her “instant family,” twins Tommy and Tracy, in the spring of 1967. After ten years in the classroom, Michèle started a new career in real estate and met her second husband, Charles White. She developed close friendships both in her home community and at work, and enjoyed the hustle and bustle of being a working mom.

After ten years in the real estate market, Michèle and a colleague hatched an idea for an interim housing business and became successful renting furnished homes for short stretches to consultants and film crews working temporarily in Baltimore. Recognizing a more vibrant market in Washington DC, Michèle, now single, moved south where she and her daughter Tracy created Pied-à-Terre Properties which soon became a well renowned DC establishment for 25 years.

An entrepreneur when few women were, Michèle is consistently described as brave, remarkable, unstoppable, smart, a seeker and a doer. She loved touring and exploring–from the nooks and crannies of her homes in DC, Palm Beach, and Fire Island, to the more exotic spots around the world such as Kenya, Cuba, and The Galapagos Islands. As a friend said, “You could always count on Michèle to say yes.” She was an active member in all of her communities, and forged meaningful friendships wherever she lived. Of all her devotions, what she treasured most was spending time with her grandsons, Adam, Billy, and James, and her children, Tom Tuttle and Tracy McGowan. She will be remembered as a luminous, joyful presence who loved nothing more than setting the table, in so many ways, for the people she loved.

A service will be held on Friday, December 15th at 11:00am at The Chapel at Oak Hill Cemetery in Georgetown followed by a lunch reception at The Georgetown Club. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations can be made to Dumbarton Oaks Parks Conservancy in Michèle’s memory.